Automation Is The Answer To Our Changing Demographics Posted on : Oct 06 - 2018

“Automation can be the ally of our prosperity if we will just look ahead, if we will understand what is to come, and if we will set our course wisely after proper planning for the future” – these words were spoken not by a tech CEO or even in recent history, but by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. The possibility – and fear – of robots rendering human work unneeded has riveted us from almost the moment of their creation.

In fact, such concerns have seemingly accelerated as tangible progress is made in building learning machines. Artificial intelligence is being realized not on a chalkboard but in very familiar, everyday things, such as our (driver-less) cars, (cashier-less) grocery stores, and potentially, our paychecks. But here’s the rub: while automation at home is viewed as a positive progression, automation in the workplace is often viewed with apprehension.

By 2021, Forrester estimates there will be more than 4 million robots doing office and administrative work as well as sales and related tasks. From functions as varied as finance to human resources, working alongside virtual counterparts will become the norm, and not a moment too soon in my opinion. Human minds are not designed for rote, repetitive tasks, and through virtual assistants can be freed to focus on more creative pursuits.

My segment, robotic process automation (RPA), has grown by leaps and bounds thanks to the introduction of machine learning, which allows RPA solutions to scale despite the infinite differences between enterprises’ internal business processes. Plainly speaking, it’s not just that “structured” data can be inputted quicker, but the raw, unstructured information you or I would consider before even opening the spreadsheet makes sense to machines now, too.

On an aggregate level, the productivity gains enabled by smart bots are staggering. PwC estimates that AI technologies could increase global GDP $15.7 trillion, or 14%, by 2030. Yet despite such unprecedented productivity growth, I feel that concerns about automation supplanting – and not supplementing – human work are misplaced, and the reason is demographics. Human society is not static but has rather changed quite dramatically since LBJ’s time, as proven by even a cursory glance at the news.

In particular, worldwide demographics are weakening, which at first thought seems patently false, given that it took 200,000 years for the world population to reach 1 billion people, and just 200 more years to reach 7 billion. View More